I believe vim actually makes you a better developer

2026-07-02 00:16:37
I’m not a veteran in software development, but in my short time as a professional i’ve experienced an huge growth in my career and knowledge after going deeper in the workspace and developer tools . I have 2–3 years of experience working with software development, i started were i believe many of us started, plain html and css “development” and being actually really scared of javascript. Started using the markets reference Vscode and tested a ton of IDE’s and text editors like: Sublime, Notepad++, a ton of the JetBrains series … And Zed that is my second favorite text editor. But all of them fall short in a way, i never liked IDE’s because of the idea of having one specific software to work with an language or stack, and being way heavier compared to text editors, what never helped my experience with weaker computers. And Vscode always had some sillyness attach to it, by having the marketplace of extensions providing anything, many of it could seem like a security vulnerability and something a great engineer would never use Obviously this is an understatement to what being a great engineer means, i know technical proficiency has nothing to do with the text editor you use, operational system or favorite beverage. But the idea of being some god tier, extraterrestrial being of a developer (what i aim to achieve in career wise ) does bring an image of someone who’s work tools would be something more technical, efficient and personalized. That’s where we have vim, especially neovim, the one I use to code everyday Just like when i changed to only using Linux as my desktop, there’s a senses of knowledge you must acquire, being in control of every detail of the tools you use, makes obligatory an deeper understanding of computers in general just to be able to use. I have in my mind that an great software engineer would know an whole ocean of information, not only how to code. And being the one setting every configuration for your text editor provided much more learning than using some Vscode and receiving everything you need, but some more unnecessary that bloat the software Even compared to some newer IDE in the world of AI, you can also integrate LLMS to Nvim, plus having the complete control of models, and avoiding any possible telemetry from any corporation Ricing your text editor will teach you much more than years of just borrowing tools and using it without deeper knowledge, the next step might just be write your own